The 2011 Arab Springs: Lessons for Ethiopians

There were a number of popular uprisings against dictators that erupted in 2011 in the Middle Eastern and North African Arab countries: Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Jordan, Bahrain, Syria, Yemen, and Saudi Arabia. So far we have witnessed that at least the dictators on Tunisia, Egypt and Libya are gone, with Gadafi for good.

There are many common features in all these countries: the dictators ruled the people for decades with absolute power, stifling democracy, imposing state of emergencies; whether they were monarchies or otherwise, the rulers were closely knit by kinship, affinity and kleptocracy; they killed, maimed, jailed and forced into exile all those who dared to dissent; they divided their people and opposition along ethnic, tribal and sectarian lines; looted their countries’ resources and became tycoons on the back of their impoverished people.

Doesn't this sound familiar to the Ethiopian dictators? Aren't they their mirror images?

What else is common in those countries? Despite the sufferings of their people the dictators were all being propped up by Western democracies, in exchange for their oil or other security considerations.

People had to rise up and many lives had to be sacrificed, even just to attract western media attention. The people of those countries had to demonstrate that they have reached the point of no return to induce any regional or global intervention.

Unless they see any potential shift in the balance of power on the ground, none of the western powers will come to our rescue just on moral grounds. In politics and international relations, national interest takes precedence over morality. Even when there is an uprising and determination on the part of the opperessed people, they will not intervene until they see the signs of power tipping on the side of the opposition (Bahrain and Saudi).

Dictator Meles Zenawi, “the Ethiopian Caligula” is today the “darling of the West”, a “friendly tyrant” being propped up with injections of billions of dollars aid money and military support. Despite the siphoning of billions by the tyrant for personal enrichment, in amounts unheard in Ethiopian history, money is still being pumped into the dictator’s coffer. They might even rescue him, as they did with Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemen’s deposed dictator, when the day comes.

But we still have to come together and rise up, learning the lessons from the Arab Spring. Change in Woyane's Ethiopia will not come through elections. Never!!! We have to rise up!!!

The Swedish Journalists Will be Released!

There is no doubt in mind that the Swedish jounalists, (Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson)sentenced by the TPLF kangaroo court to 11 years in prison will soon be released. I am sure they or their government will never plead for celmency. These journalists have the international community (their own government and other democratic nations) behind them to defend their rights as free journalists. We are already witnessing the position of US's Department of State aginst this ruling and that of the Swedish media demanding their government to advocate for the unconditional release of the two journalists.

I am glad that by proxy, this sentencing on the Swedish jounrnalists, will help all those TPLF enabler western governments to reflect on how arbitrarly the TPLF junta was handling the case of justice for multitudes of Ethiopians that were detained en-masse in TPLF detention camps since the junta came into power.

I am sure, it should be our duty to push for the release of Ethioipan journalists and other prisiners of conscience, as the west puts pressure on TPLF for the release of these two Swedish jounrnalists.

Why Ethiopia should be singled out: An Answer to Professor David Shinn

I read a commentary by professor David Shinn, the former US Ambassador to Ethiopia and currently, adjunct professor of international affairs at the George Washington University, titled, "Ethiopia and 2011 Global Financial Integrity Report".

In his commentary, while he admits that there are problems of illicit financial flows from Ethiopia, he questioned the integrity of one of the authors, Sarah Freitas, for "singling out" Ethiopia while there are many other African countries who have higher Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) than Ethiopia.

As to me none of those African countries mentioned by the professor (Nigeria, Egypt, Sounth Africa, Libya, Angola, Republic of the Congo, Cote d'Ivoire and Tunisia) with high IFF values, are comparable to Ethiopia by most standards, except being located in Africa. To mention a few, the economies of these countries are not as dependent on foreign aid as is Ethiopia, none of these are noted for an annual begging of food from the international community, none of these countries are ruled by closely knit kleptocratic junta of one ethnic group.

If I had to coin a word to express the level of IFF in Ethiopia, it would certainly be even more stronger than "bleeding the country dry".